Integrating Technology Into Schools

Michael J. Forte

Manville High School• School Type: Public• Grades: 9-12• Student Enrollment: 385• Student Teacher Ratio -

12:1

PurposeThe goal of this presentation is to analyze the integration of technology into the modern education system.

Outline• Slide 5 – How and Why Our Current System Needs Change

– Sir Ken Robinson • Slide 6 – Computer Based Leaning: The Wave of the Future• Slide 7 - Small Schools Problems• Slide 8 - Effective Learning Online• Slide 9 - State Programs• Slide 10 - Home Schooling• Slide 11 - Online Enrollment• Slide 12 - Pitfalls of Online Learning• Slide 13- Why we still need schools• Slide 14 - Changing Role of Teachers• Slide 15 - Obsoleteness of Textbooks• Slide 16 - Achieve 3000• Slide 17 - Benefits Five-Step Literacy Routine • Slide 18 - More Benefits

How and Why Our Current System Needs Change – Sir Ken Robinson

Click on the picture for a video

Small Schools Problems• No Child Left

Behind requires districts to have “highly qualified” teachers in each subject

• Constrains these schools’ offerings

• Lack of advanced courses

Effective Learning OnlineApex Learning– In 2003–04: 8,400

enrollments in AP courses

– In 2006–07: up to 30,200, • growth rate of over

50 percent.

– Apex has had more than 1 million enrollments in over 4,000 school districts.

State Programs• 25+ states have

web-based courses. • 1/3 of Utah high

school seniors engaged in online learning.

• Florida Virtual School – Served 52,000

students since 1997 – 92,000 enrolled in

2006–07

• Georgia Virtual School– Opened in 2005– In 2006–07: 4,600

students enrolled

Home SchoolingPractice is growing and working• 850,000 home-

schooled students in 1999 homeschooling

• Today estimated 2 million students

Online Enrollment• According to the

North American Council for Online Learning, – online enrollments in

2000 were 45,000; – enrollments have

grown 22 times to roughly 1,000,000.

• By 2019 about 50 percent of courses will be delivered online.

Pitfalls of Online Learning• Believed to work

best with motivated students

• Some students feel alone and unsupported

• No one to impress or disappoint

• Lack of accountability and inspiration

• Lack of social environment

Why we still need schools?• Schools create a

culturally academic environment

• Schools must integrate online learning into traditional learning

• Schools reap benefits of traditional and computer based learning

Changing Role of Teachers1900s: “Sage on the Stage”

2014: “Guide on the Side”

Obsoleteness of TextbooksEconomics of the textbook business are scale intensive:• fixed costs are the

same, selling to 1,000 or 1 million

• textbook companies sell to large, monolithic audience

• customization is not desirable

Achieve 3000• In August of 2014 the

Manville School district ACHIEVE 3000: Educational Technology Grant for $58,015

• ACHIEVE 3000 – Provides Associated Press

newspaper articles directly related to themes in the district’s curriculum.

– Automatically differentiates reading instruction. Each article is differentiated to 12 reading levels per grade

– student work and progress is monitored continually by the computer.

– Eliminates the need to constantly test students.

Click Below for video

Benefits

• Delivers differentiated assignments at 12 different reading levels

• Reports real-time diagnostic data to teachers and administrators

• The College/Career Readiness Report forecasts students' ability

Five-Step Literacy Routine

1.Acquire knowledge from informational text

2.Develop strong content knowledge,3.Uses higher order thinking skills4.Helps students argue effectively

with supporting evidence5.Helps students communicate

effectively

More Benefits

Get parents involved too:• Reinforce literacy

skills • Follow their child's

progress • Access daily article

topic along guided questions

• Parent tutorials show how to work to increase student achievement

Call to Action

Achieve 3000 is great opportunity for Manville High School to become more integrated with educational technology. In order to facilitate this change school administrators should:1. Create a sense of urgency to integrate

technology2. Provide sufficient professional development3. Develop a strategy to efficiently allocate

current technological resource and acquire more resources 

ResourcesClayton M. Christensen and Michael B. Horn. “How Do We Transform Our Schools?” Education Next. 2008.

Zimmerman, Judith. “Why Some Teachers Resist Change and What Principals Can Do About It”. NASSP Bulletin, Vol. 90 No. 3 September 2006 238-249

Achieve 3000– http://www.achieve3000.com/

Chandler, Adam D. “Learning in Classrooms Versus Online”. NyTimes. July 20, 2012

HSDLA: Advocates for Homeschooling– http://www.hslda.org/docs/study/rudner1999/rudner2.asp